Hollande pushes for more growth-oriented policies

French President Francois Hollande continues its crusade to convince Germany for a loosening of austerity demand, which in view of Mr. Hollande, are damaging the French economy.

During the first day of a 2-day EU summit, the Frenchman aimed at finding a compromise to allocate additional budget to stimulate growth, something that Berlin finds difficult to accept, not losing sight of the tight fiscal path required.

Reuters editors Luke Baker and Julien Ponthus cited Mr. Hollande, who said: "We need flexibility if we want to ensure that growth is the priority," adding that without ignoring budget consolidation, more growth stimulative action is possible

"It is precisely because of this commitment that there must be flexibility because the only priority right now, aside from the budgetary commitments, is growth... Too much rigidity would mean too much unemployment," Hollande said, Luke and Julien add.

The comments comes against the backdrop of a downbeat French budget deficit for 2013, projected at 3.7%/GDP vs 3% target from the EU. There might be some room for hope if one was to read the prepared draft statement for the summit, which highlighted the need to generate for revenue measures as well as boost growth to create employment opportunities.

According to Reuters, citing some diplomats familiar with the topic, the northern alliance formed by Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and other countries are not too excited about the French view.